PETA has called on the US National Zoo to release its elephants to sanctuaries, citing health concerns.
The appeal came a day after the zoo put down an arthritic Asian elephant who was said to have been in worsening pain. The elephant named Toni was 40. Elephants can live to be 60 or older.There's some debate on whether the enclosure really caused Toni's arthritis. However, I'm sure that her confinement caused health problems for Toni. I don't weigh thousands of pounds nor do I normally walk more than a couple miles a day, and forcing me to live out my life in an enclosure the size of an elephant cage would have a deleterious affect on my mental health, to say the least. I can't imagine what it would be like for an animal many times my size.
"Toni was clearly in bad shape and had been suffering for a long time. If she had been sent to a sanctuary years ago, her quality of life and health would have vastly improved," People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, said in a letter to the director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo.
PETA said elephants in zoos were dying decades short of their expected lifespan from illnesses that were directly related to the large animals' lack of spaces and their inability to walk great distances each day.
Categories: PETA | elephants | zoos
